Craig G. Lewis….never heard of him, but….....
......do you ever notice it is always the non-Masons who know so much about Masonry? Hmmmm. If I were you, I’d go with the experts on this one.

I bet we donate more money to charity in a DAY than he does in an entire year! I be we donate more blood in a day than he has in his life. I bet we help more burn victims and children with bone problems than he ever has. I bet we help more children with dislexia than he does. Obviously we are evil…we’re making him look bad! ;)

Seriously though, there are thousands of people out there who claim to be ministers of the true way to God. There will always be people out there who will tell you to watch out because if you breathe wrong, Satan will steal your first born child. You could listen to them, I suppose….or you could do what you feel is right. Use your own judgement and your own logic, and come to your own conclusions based on evidence, not on the ramblings of some rapper trying to sell CDs.

Dan, yes I hear ya and understand what u are saying! I don’t get why their is so much anti-masons writing books and spreading so much negative information about this organization especially when u guys do so much good in the community…I just recently found out This guy I know that goes to my barbershop is a prince hall mason and I never knew! He just became one a year ago! Are there any upcoming open houses for both princehall masonry and freemasonry that u know of ??? Thanks!! By the way u have been a lot of help Dan with answering my questions thanks alot!! :)

Hey Jay, I’m sorry to say that I don’t know much about the open house schedule for Prince Hall Masonry. I’m a member of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts so I can only speak for them. Our open house will be Octiber 16th. Hopefully we’ll see you there.

Hey i just turned 17 and i would like to enlighten myself and possibly go about pursuing a future in masonry… and i would just like to know were do i begin? i have nothing but time to invest in studying and learning…

How about this rumor of Aleister Crowley , Albert Pike, both very notable high ranking freemasons. The rumor claims they were by far the most evil men in history . I read some pages of their book’s , and It seems chilling , especially Crowley’s book of Law .

Another question is about the Egyptian rite’s (memphis mizraim) , known to be the source of the Scottish rite. Their said to be a very rare 90 , 96 degree rank and even a more rare 100 degree. Their also said to be that most mid and low level masons don’t know these degrees even exist. It has been said that only the 33 degree mason’s on up only practice dark craft(which craft) , keeping the mid and low degree masons in the dark from what is really going on. They supposedly answer to high priest of the devil (jahbulon) also known by high ranking freemasons as Ain Soph Aur who calls upon the mystery of the seven. Mystery of the seven is the highest ranking freemasons giving the orders over all , these same seven are known to control the world banks who controls the economics of the world . So you can say the seven controls the world .

One more question , why do some ex freemasons talk bad about the fraternity . A note , these ex freemasons were very high ranking one’s , so what “are they lying” ?

You are, I’m afraid, in the middle of an internet “too much information” search.

If you want to find conspiracy and crazies, all you have to do is do a search for that stuff.

Lucky for you .... you arrived here. Real Freemasons.

A few things before I head to the sack:

1) There is no higher degree than the 3rd. Period. The rest are appendant. Or honorary (like the 33rd). There is no 34th or 100th or 1000th.
Saying that someone who had a 33rd (or “higher”) degree somehow knows something that the rest of us don’t is like saying that someone who gets an honorary degree from Harvard suddenly knows that Harvard is really not a college.

2) Aleister Crowley was a crazy occultist who was not a Freemason, but thought he was. He scares me too. but hs has no more to do with Freemasonry than Charles Manson did.

3) Albert Pike was a Freemason, but got caught up in it a little too much and liked to hear himself talk. His views were his own (and he says that) and they can only be looked at as that. His extravagant thoughts on Freemasonry are humorous at best. A bit like a top golfer deciding that golf holds the key to heaven and the universe—and he must know because he’s a great golfer, right?

4) Ex’s tend to trash their exes. Freemasonry is not for everyone. But Funny how out of the millions and millions and millions of Freemasons over the centuries only a few ever decide that it’s something they no longer want to associate themselves with. People should look at their motives. Usually it’s some religious thing or somebody that joined under false pretenses. Anybody that becomes a Freemason and comes to the conclusion that it is somehow against some religious doctrine or against God or something just missed the facts somewhere.

Most Freemasons tend to be somewhat religious and have God in their lives somewhere. You have to say you believe in a supreme being to become a freemason. But Freemasonry is not a religion and anyone who tries to claim that it is is simply wrong.

Hope that helps. But you should get off the internet, find a Lodge, and go see for yourself. We don’t bite.

This is my first post so bare with me on my questions. I have a couple questions to start then i will go from there.

1. In a previous post the admin said there is no degree higher then 33rd. That being said couldn’t that just be what you are aware of? IMO i would like to think that a group that has been around for as long as the Masons have been some things could be on a need to know basis logicly speaking.

2. The above being said, is there any real answer to any of these questions? How does one know what went on back in the day? Is it all passed down knowledge?

This is my first post so bare with me on my questions. I have a couple questions to start then i will go from there.

1. In a previous post the admin said there is no degree higher then 33rd. That being said couldn’t that just be what you are aware of? IMO i would like to think that a group that has been around for as long as the Masons have been some things could be on a need to know basis logicly speaking.

2. The above being said, is there any real answer to any of these questions? How does one know what went on back in the day? Is it all passed down knowledge?

This is where I will start and look forward to hearing a response.

Jason

Hey Jason,

Welcome.

I’m not really sure how to answer that. The whole degree thing is very misunderstood by non-masons and even by some Masons.

First, you have to understand that the 33rd degree is not even associated with regular Masonry. Rather, it is a part of an appendant body that is associated with Masonry called the Scottish Rite. This is a group that some Masons CHOOSE to join and participate in. Others choose to join the York Rite, or the Shriners, or other appending bodies.

For those who choose to join the Scottish Rite, they are able to participate in a system of degrees that is tangential to those in in regular Freemasonry. I myself have done this and have seen degrees 4 through 32. Pretty much that is it. Members attend meetings and work to perform theatrical productions of these degrees for future members. They also continue being active in charity and fraternal aspects as well. Occasionally a member will exhibit exemplary behavior in the areas of service to their community and their fraternity, and these members are presented a form of recognition for this….which is called the 33rd degree. This is an honorary title.

That’s it. I suppose you’d have to trust us when we say that if there were other degrees, we’d certainly know about them. Since the degrees in the Scottish Rite are not a rank or a hierarchy, it really wouldn’t make sense to ask if there are any clandestine “higher degrees”.

As for your question about there being any “real” answers….I like that question. Of course, there’s no real answer to that one either :) There are things about the history of Freemasonry that have been lost over time, but there are also many things that we can answer very concretely for you. This is true about everything. The main point here is that I think there is a small group out there that believes that Masons are out to deceive people, that we are hiding something, or that there are a small group of “secretly higher up than the rest of us Masons” who are running the show without any of us knowing. It is problematic to give proof that this is not the case, but that doesn’t make it so.

For example, can you prove that there isn’t a giant invisible elephant floating in the air about a half a mile above your house? You probably can’t prove that he isn’t there, but that doesn’t mean that by default, he must be there. It just means that there are some things that you have to know about from experience. From experience you know that there is no elephant because at some point you would have had giant invisible elephant droppings landing all over your yard. From experience I know there are no “higher and hidden” degrees because I know so many Masons on a very close and personal level that it would be very hard to miss this supposed clandestine activity.

So yes, getting answer to these questions can be hard, but there comes a point where you need to accept that we would gain nothing from decpetion, and only wish for people to understand what it is that we are all about. If we were hiding something, we certainly wouldn’t be putting ourselves out here like this.